Yangon (dpa) – Myanmar's chief opposition party on Wednesday welcomed an announcement that the government had invited election observers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the April 1 by-election. “The observers are few, but we happily and warmly welcome them,” National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan win said. The Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretariat on Tuesday announced that Myanmar had invited a five-person delegation from its office and two legislators from each country in the region to monitor the election. The vote is being held to fill 48 parliament seats left vacant when the current cabinet members office a year ago. ASEAN groups Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Myanmar's state-controlled media did not mention the observers Wednesday, and some members of the government's election commission were unaware of the development. Myanmar had refused to allow international observers to monitor the November 2010 general election that brought the pro-military government to power. Although it boycotted the 2010 polls, the NLD – led by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi – has opted to contest the April 1 by-election. Western democracies regard the by-election as an important benchmark for the reform process begun President Thein Sein after he came to power a year ago. A free and fair election is one of the conditions for normalizing ties with Myanmar, a pariah state because of its poor human rights record, and the lifting of sanctions against the regime. The NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide but was blocked from power by the military for two decades. It has issued several complaints of unfair practices during the current campaign. The NLD initially fielded 48 candidates to contest the polls, but one was disqualified after his parents could not produce Myanmar identification papers. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/MYZpt Tags: Election, Monitors, Myanmar Section: Latest News, Southeast Asia
